A Cirque du Soleil performer has died after a 50-foot fall, when a safety wire failed during a performance in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Sarah Guillot-Guyard, a native of Paris and a performer with over 20 years of experience, was a cast member of the circus group’s Ka show at the MGM Grand hotel.

Montrealer Adam Aguzzi was in the audience during the performance. The accident occurred during a scene meant to portray a battle, during which performers scaled a wall. Aguzzi described a scene that had some of Guillot-Guyard’s castmates in tears.

“About three minutes into the scene, a performer fell from the very top of the wall into the pit,” Aguzzi wrote in an email to The Montreal Gazette. “At first, we thought this was part of the show as similar fall and stunts were done throughout the show. However, after 30 or so seconds the performers stopped in their positions, while still at various spots on the wall. After another two minutes, the music was cut off. Immediately you could hear yelling from the pit and what we believed to be the screams of pain of the performer.

“Sitting quiety listening to the screams and panic was quite disturbing,” Aguzzi added.

James Shufelt, another Montrealer who attended the performance with Aguzzi, said that before the fall there appeared to be a problem with Guillot-Guyard’s safety harness.

“(The artist) was being hoisted up the side of the stage and then just plummeted down,” audience member Dan Mosqueda told the Las Vegas Sun. “Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the choreographed fight. But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage.”

Guillot-Guyard, 31, was mother to two children.

In a statement, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté said the company “is deeply saddened.”

Performances have been cancelled until further notice.

A spokesperson for the Clark County Coroner’s Office said an official cause of death has yet to be determined.